New Optus supplied Wireless Broadband modem | B818

[OddBod]

Hi Peter49,

I'll also post my question to the online service agents. I'd dearly like to know from Optus what changed between 30 September to 1 October, for my modem's performance to change in the way it did. I'll keep monitoring the service agents & case management, & if they provide anything I'll post it back to this blog.

And not least, thank you for the contact!

[rebuilder]

so band 40 2300 mhz will be better for downloading because the towers transmitters are more powerful than you your modem, in a very basic explanation, but thats the gist of it.  
A few reasons b40 2300 is slower upload,
1. its bandwidth is shared for u and downlink traffic on the network and prioritized for the downlink, so if lots of people are downloading, that capacity is taken from the upload capacity.
2. its frequency is higher and therefore its signal fades away faster, and as your devices transmitter is not as powerful as the transmitter on the tower, the transmission of data is louder in the downlink direction.

so basically, in short, you have the option of
a. (bands 28 and band 3) fast uploads over the lower frequency bands but suffer the congestion that goes with the longer range and more subscribers, or,
b. (band 40, sometimes aggregated with band 3) fast downloads over the downlink with less upload capacity.

You can only lock "to B40", "off band 40", or an automatic combination of all.

[digitizernz1]

Just a quick query, are you using an external 4G antenna plugged into the two rear TS9 ports?

[digitizernz1]

Just a quick question, can you confirm if the external antenna supports 2300Mhz? I had an indoor external antenna driving my nuts as I was getting abhorrent D/L speeds. Only to discover 2300Mhz was the only freq it did not support. Reverted to internal antenna and viola. All good.

[OddBod]

I did try an external antenna which was ok for 2300MHz according to the blurb. At the moment its disconnected, it doesn't seem to make that much difference to performance having tried it over the last 4 weeks (I live within 1.5 km of 3 Optus towers anyway). Modem is running ok on its own internal antenna at present.

[JQiao]

Received this yesterday, but have issues with wifi signal strength some location around house, is any solution for this and recommended mesh devices?
thanks

[Aron_YC]

Hi JQiao

If you're having some trouble with the inbuilt WiFi not reaching all areas of your home then you would be correct in thinking you'll need a range extender or to set up a mesh system. We don't have any recommendations ourselves, but some of our users here may be able to help you out with that.

[digitizernz1]

Hi JQiao. I am using a TP-Link RE650 Ranger Extender flawlessly with my Huawei B818-263. Works well and has a seamless setup.

[jwestrupp]

JQiao, good options are either Google Nest WiFi or Ubiquiti AmpliFi.  In either case you turn off the WiFi on the Optus modem and use those instead once you have deployed them.

I've found the AmpliFi system to have more coverage than the Google one, so for larger homes (or thicker brick walls, or pushing out into acre blocks) that'd be a good option, otherwise the Google option works well if you have other smart home things like smart lights or Google Home speakers as the access points have speakers built into them.  For most homes I've found a 2 pack of either does the job, but occasionally a situation arises where a 3rd unit is needed - which is fine as being a mesh system and not an extender, both systems are easily expandable to provide larger coverage all while maintaining that ease of use of just having a single WiFi network.

[JQiao]

Thanks guys, I have a DSL-AC68U at home for my previous fixed wireless, I did some research and seems it can be used as a Wi-Fi extender.

I will give a go.

🙂